The weekend of the 28th/29th March was really nice and sunny so we spent some much needed time away from Dunedin City and jumped into the car. On saturday we went to Long Beach near Port Chalmers to drop off some students going climbing. We had a look at the beautiful beach, the cave then went back to Port Chalmers for lunch. That evening we were back out that way for a party in the cave.
On Sunday we went for a drive on the Penninsula, stopping of at Sandfly Bay. We didn’t see any penguins but we saw a few seals.
It turns out that someone I met whilst in Malawi last year has been short-listed for “The Best Job in the World“, which is also billed as Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef. In what has been an enormously successful marketing campaign come job advert for Tourism Queensland, Ben Southall has made it to the final 50.
Last Saturday we went to Baldwin Street which according to Guinness World Records is the steepest street in the world. Quite a few of the streets in Dunedin are built at crazy angles but since it was a nice day we thought we’d go see the steepest.
On Saturday Bhav and I went sea fishing for the first time. We had the chance to do it since Bhav works for Recreational Services at the University of Otago. We woke up early (by our standards) to drive up to Port Chalmers to get on the catamaran. On the way out Bhav got the opportunity to steer whilst Alan, the skipper, set up the rods to catch some barracuda as bait.
It was about an hour and a half up the coast on quite calm waters before we arrived at the kelp forest, one of the largest in New Zealand, where we would fish. We were out there because the trumpeter fish we were after live in shoals and prefer the habitat and relative safety of the kelp. I really got into it and was loving the whole experience, others were suffering a little from sea sickness. I caught 5 trumpeter (would have been 8 if 2 hadn’t fallen back into the water and the other had been bigger).
On the way back I got to steer for most of the time. There was a yacht race near the peninsular though so Alan had to take over as he knew how to avoid interfering with them. It was a really enjoyable day and a successful catch. I don’t eat fish but Bhav’s dinner is set for a while to come.
